Directline/Web chat channel error: HTTP status code Forbidden

Question

I am facing issue while sending message in my Chatbot. I had taken the below steps to create the Chatbot.

• Created the bot using Bot framework SDK v-4 and published to Azure
• Created the Bot Channels Registrations and registered the App ID
• Included the AppID and password for the bot channel in my Bot service API's app settings in Azure
• Created a web client using botchat-es5.js (es-5 version)

When I type and send a message (using the web client) I get below error (with code error 502) on my browser console.

POST https://directline.botframework.com/v3/directline/conversations/7IqYgcAzBp4EObQvFzK2fF/activities 502 (Bad Gateway)

The Directline and Web chat channel logs shows the error message as

There was an error sending this message to your bot: HTTP status code Forbidden

Below is the request header details.

Below is the Bot config (.bot) file details. Note, the App ID and Password is blank, if that's the issue?

{
  "name": "Chatbot",
  "services": [
    {
      "type": "endpoint",
      "name": "development",
      "endpoint": "http://localhost:3978/api/messages",
      "appId": "",
      "appPassword": "",
      "id": "1"
    },
    {
      "type": "endpoint",
      "name": "production",
      "endpoint": "https://<my_app_name>.azurewebsites.net/api/messages",
      "appId": "<YOUR APP ID>",
      "appPassword": "<YOUR APP PASSWORD>",
      "id": "2"
    }
  ],
  "padlock": "",
  "version": "2.0"
}

I tried re-creating all of these on a different subscription but I get same error. I have another bot which is up and running and if I use the Directline channel key of that bot in the same web client, it works fine.

I looked for some online references but those didn't help. Can someone please help me if I am missing something? Let me know if I can provide more details.

Answer 1

If you're bot is using the integration library, the startup code using a .bot file generally has this (among other things):

var secretKey = Configuration.GetSection("botFileSecret")?.Value;
var botFilePath = Configuration.GetSection("botFilePath")?.Value;

BotConfiguration botConfig = BotConfiguration.Load(botFilePath, secretKey);

var environment = _isProduction ? "production" : "development";
var service = botConfig.Services.FirstOrDefault(s => s.Type == "endpoint" && s.Name == environment);

services.AddBot<BasicBot>(options =>
{
    options.CredentialProvider = new SimpleCredentialProvider(endpointService.AppId, endpointService.AppPassword);

    //other code
}

Notice the credential provider created from bot file AppId and AppPassword. This appid and apppassword can instead be retrieved from App Settings with something like:

options.CredentialProvider =  new SimpleCredentialProvider(Configuration[MicrosoftAppCredentials.MicrosoftAppIdKey],
                                                      Configuration[MicrosoftAppCredentials.MicrosoftAppPasswordKey]);

Note: you're endpoint should also be correct:

"endpoint": "https://<my_app_name>.azurewebsites.net/api/messages",